


Lifetimes Forgotten

by navaan



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Aging, Community: wintercompanion, Immortality, M/M, Memories, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-04
Updated: 2011-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-18 23:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/194465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some memories are lost forever, but some things are not to be forgotten</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lifetimes Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the [](http://wintercompanion.livejournal.com/profile)[**wintercompanion**](http://wintercompanion.livejournal.com/)  2011 Jack/Doctor Bingo Fest. All entries can be found [](http://wintercompanion.livejournal.com/159696.html)**here**.

_Tangled sheets, sweating bodies. The air is literally humming with tension. ”Promise me you will never let me forget you. Promise.”_

_“I’ll try.”_

_“Don’t try! Promise me you won’t.”_

_“I won’t.”_

_Feverish kisses. Hope._

_Just a fading memory._

\--

“Jek! You’re back! I didn’t know you were back on planet. How did your mission go?” The young science officer smiled at him and then turned back to look at her screens. “Of course, you were. I’d really like to know where you learned to be this reckless and still survive.”

He laughed at her quizzical expression. “Maybe I’ll tell you sometime.”

“I’d really like to know more about you. You tell so many outrageous stories about the places you’ve been and the adventures you’ve had...”

“And the sex. Don’t forget the sex,” he interjected, smiling at the way she rolled her eyes at him.

“How could anyone ever forget about the sex...” She looked back up at him. “But you never talk about your home.”

Jek was smiling at her. “What’s there to tell about earth, darling? It’s boring. Nothing more to tell about it.”

He liked the moon base. There was always something going on here. He loved being a pilot, even if it was a temporary vocation at best. This century may be okay with longevity, but immortality was something most mortals didn’t cope with all that well. And at one point or other he’d have to leave again - or get bored and leave on his own.

But at the moment this was the only home he needed.

He had no idea where he had been born anyway, so it was easy to make a home wherever he went.

\--

“You always look like you're waiting for someone,” his new partner had remarked. He'd just shrugged. Jek had been standing on deck, staring into the vast blackness of space, lost in his own thoughts. He’d been going through his private records recently and he'd felt that although he didn't remember everything, he did remember some of the things he'd written down. Fearing he'd forget everything, he'd started keeping a diary of sorts. A record that compiled the stories of the lifetimes he still remembered. Some of the stories had already slipped away into oblivion since writing them down and were now only fragments of memory. His memory ranged back a good 6000 years, but the records went back to a time long before that.

He couldn’t remember all of it, but he’d made sure to preserve his own history. There were no records of his earliest history.

But he knew one thing for certain: He _was_ waiting for someone. He was waiting for the one person who really knew him and who's name.

\--

Running for your life was pure excitement, always had been - even if you could be sure to survive anyway. He tried to avoid dying whenever he could. Dying was always an inconvenience.

But _this_ was fun.

The moon base was about to explode and the people had nowhere to run. After the first explosions hit the life support systems and the main hangar, chances for evacuation were slim at best and it seemed more explosions were set to take the rest of them out in minutes. Appearing out of nowhere a strangely clad scientist with messy brown hair had stepped in to save them all and Jek was following him around the base to not miss a minute of this.

“How do you know how this timer works?” he asked, astonished at the way the stranger dismantled the bomb with nimble fingers. “ _I’ve_ never seen a device like this. And _I_ ’ve seen everything!”

“Bet you have,” the man said rolling his eyes. “Bet you’ve seen something like this, too, and just don’t remember.”

It took him a moment to understand the implication and even then he just stared. The bomb was dismantled in mere minutes. The man sat back to look at him. “You do remember me, Jack, do you?” A tinge of worry in the voice.

“You’re the... Doctor.”

“Yeah,” the man nodded enthusiastically and waved at him. “Doctor. That’s me. Running around, saving the world.”

Jek - or Jack? - didn’t remember clearly, but there were flashes of excitement, love, danger and sadness, all mixed up and making him feel dizzy. He didn’t have the time to work through this. So it seemed best to cut things short.

He bent forward to kiss the Doctor and everything became clearer at once.

“You haven’t changed much, have you?” The Doctor asked pulling away, but sounded a little breathless. “Still good old Jack. Kissing in the middle of danger. That’s so very you.”

“There is no danger.” He pointed to the dismantled explosives at their feet.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. After all the two of us together - that’s always been a sign for trouble.”

He nodded slowly. It seemed he did remember some things after all. And while the Doctor was smiling at him he remembered faces smiling at him - different Doctors, but all him Mostly he’d been smiling in fun, playful and happy or genuinely amused. But now he looked a bit wistful.

“I promised, I’d never let you forget, didn’t I, Jack?”

It made him laugh out loud, because he had no idea. “It seems you did, yeah. Is Jack even my real name?”

The Doctor shook his head. “But that doesn’t really matter. It's the name you've had when we met... Names don't really matter. You’re still you. Always you.”

From there it was all tangled sheets, sweating bodies, unbelievable adventures and danger. Jack hoped he would never have to leave and never forget.

Of course, it had to end.

\--

A hundred years or so later a young man came to remind him of his existence. The hair was darker shade and the bow-tie was hideous, but it was still the Doctor where it counted and he remembered everything as vividly as if it happened yesterday. Always the Doctor.

Even if he couldn't forever keep all the memories inside his bursting head, remembering the Doctor was all that mattered.  



End file.
